by Victor Poole
"We disposed of Lim," she said helpfully, "and then I said your father was trying to kill you."
"He is trying to kill me," Delmar said morosely. He no longer seemed doubtful about this; Ajalia thought that the burst of magic, and the tendril of core gold she had woven through his veins of light, must have shaken out and clarified his thinking.
"I'll protect you," Ajalia told him. "I have a vested interest in you surviving."
"So you can seduce me into giving away power to your Eastern lord," Delmar said sourly. "I remember that part." Ajalia shrugged, and smiled.
"Who knows?" she said lightly. "Maybe you will be the one doing the seducing."
Delmar grimaced at her.
"Be serious," he complained. "This is serious."
"I was being serious," she said. He stared at her, and blushed.
"Well," he said. He looked around in the hollow. "I guess we can go."
"I want to get back to work," Ajalia said briskly. "I have a household to arrange."
"How long were we out here?" Delmar asked. What he meant was, did I sleep for long?
Ajalia shrugged.
"Long enough to be talked about in the city," she said. "And long enough to start rumors of some sort of liaison."
"You talk dirty," Delmar complained. His eyes were distressed. "I don't think anyone in Slavithe would actually think that. And," he added, "no one knows you're with me."
"You are a baby," Ajalia told him. She kissed him on the nose, and began to saddle the horse.
"I'm not a baby," Delmar said loudly. "I'm very grown up."
"How old are you?" Ajalia asked again. Delmar shifted within the hollow. She saw a kind of panic in his eyes, and she stopped what she was doing. "Delmar," she said seriously. "Delmar, do you know how old you are?"
Delmar looked away. An ugly blush was climbing up his neck; his eyes were dark.
"I don't want to talk about how old I am," he said. His words came out strangled.
"How old are your brothers?" Ajalia asked.
"Twelve," Delmar said. "And eighteen."
"So when was the year of the great plague?" Ajalia asked.
"That won't help," Delmar said. "The great plague went on for a while, and anyway, my father went back and forth to Slavithe many times."
"Well," Ajalia said, "I'm pretty sure your grandfather could tell you how old you are."
Delmar's face puckered.
"I hadn't thought of that," he admitted.
"You haven't thought of anything," Ajalia said. He wrinkled his nose at her. "Come on," she said, collecting the goatskin saddle, and going to the horse. "Are you going to live with me now?" she asked.
"Your language is awfully immodest," Delmar pointed out.
"You call me little bird," Ajalia said. She stared at him. His cheeks blazed.
"Yes," he said fiercely.
"What does that mean?" she asked.
"That I love you," he said.
"Great," she said, turning back to the horse. "Then you're living in my house."
"I don't know," Delmar said.
"You really want to live with the man who tried to assassinate you?" she asked.
"Well, Lim tried to kill you," Delmar said. "We don't know for sure—"
"They asked for you," Ajalia said. "You tell me that when you meet a young man and a dead body in the woods, your first reaction is a lack of surprise. And then you ask if the body is the one of the slave that your father owned."
"That doesn't mean anything," Delmar said. Ajalia mounted the horse.
"My arms are better," she said. She moved the horse around the hollow, and crossed her wrists over the pommel of the saddle. "Do you want to see?" she asked.
Delmar's eyes edged over her wrists.
"No," he said slowly.
"Do you remember what happened?" Ajalia asked.
"No," he said quickly. Ajalia held out her hand to him. He climbed over the edge of the hollow, and took her arm. She hoisted him up on the horse behind her.
"Liar," she told him. She pulled his arms around her waist.
"Immodest," he muttered.
"Yes, and I like your body too, hypocrite," she said, snuggling against his chest.
"Stop," Delmar complained.
"Never," she said. She nudged the horse. "I have to get back in through the wall," she said. "They'll be watching for me at the gate."
Delmar said nothing. Ajalia felt his forearms, warm and tight against her waist. She had examined the place where Lim's poisoned dart had penetrated, when she had changed her clothes. There was no mark there now. She put her hand over Delmar's fingers. He folded his hand over hers.
They rode through the trees for a long time; Ajalia had explored while Delmar was asleep, and she felt now that she had some grasp of the territory. The forest stretched for some two miles from the city walls to the beginning of the farmlands; after the edge of desert sand that lay just beside the walls, the forest grew dense, like weeds, with vines and old tall trees mixed up as close as could be. The edge of the forest was like a hedge, or a wall. It was nearly impassable.
"You were out for a long time," Ajalia said over her shoulder. Delmar watched the birds flit through the branches of the trees. "A couple of days," she said. "I went exploring."
She did not say that she had gone to the cave, across the road, and buried some of her things there. She did not say that she had gone out to the farmlands, and back towards the wall. She also failed to mention that she had walked the length of the wall, until she had found the loose stone that Delmar had moved to reveal the gap in the wall, and the secret passage within.
Delmar accepted the direction she chose without protest. She waited to see if he would ask her where she was going, or if she needed help, but he never stopped her. She rode through the trees, which were spaced out more evenly this deep in the forest. The trees formed a thick hedge, a wall of green, and bark, and moss, all along the sand that ran along the white wall of Slavithe. Within the forest, the trees spread out, and the grassy ground began to roll, and fill with ferns, and curious colorful bushes.
Ajalia had not seen much wildlife in the trees; aside from the birds, which floated and cried in the trees like insects, she had seen no animals.
"What do the metheros look like?" she asked suddenly. She felt Delmar shrug behind her.
"They're ugly," he said. "Ugly like their sounds. Hairy, and about the size of your head. You wouldn't believe the sound that they make, though. Their cries are like they had bodies four times the size they do."
Ajalia tried to think of what to say to Delmar; she wanted to talk to him, but she felt curiously blank inside. She didn't know what she ought to do with herself. Delmar agitated her; he was like a scratching grain of sand against the inside of her brain. She would have been happily silent on her own, but Delmar made her feel somehow that she was neglecting something, or missing something that she ought to have been doing.
"Aren't you wondering about what I did to you?" she asked finally.
"You did something?" Delmar asked innocently.
"Yes," Ajalia said evenly. "You had big shadows on your face, remember? And you read some of the book to me, and then my hands glowed."
Delmar was quiet for some time.
"I don't remember that," he said. Ajalia had been sure that she would not mention the magic at all, but Delmar still, she saw, had a power over her tongue. She said things that she meant to keep to herself when she was near him.
"Well," Ajalia said. The horse paced steadily between the trees. "I'll have you take the horse," Ajalia said. "He can't go through the wall."
"No," Delmar agreed. Her arms were bare; she had gone back to the poison tree while Delmar slept, and disposed of the bloodied bandages, and her draggled cream robe.
"I should tell Yelin," Ajalia said suddenly.
"Tell her what?" Delmar asked.
"Her husband's dead," Ajalia said.
"Who?" Delmar asked.
"Lim," Ajalia to
ld him. "She married Lim a few weeks ago." The horse picked his way over a fallen log; Ajalia held the reins loosely, giving the black horse his head.
"Oh," Delmar said. She glanced back at him; he was staring at the leaves in the trees. "Do you want to marry me?" he asked. Ajalia settled herself against his chest; he tightened his hold on her.
"No," she said.
"Yes, you do," he said.
"No, I don't," she said.
"You want to marry me," Delmar said hotly. "You're amazingly upset that I can't marry you, and you really want to."
"Do not," she said.
"Do too!" Delmar said. She could feel him sitting up stiffly. She stifled a smile. "And you're mean," he added.
"You don't want to sleep with me," she pointed out. He said nothing. "Therefore," she added, "I am right."
"Sleeping together has nothing to do with getting married," Delmar said with dignity. Ajalia laughed.
"I was trying really hard," she said, "not to make fun of you."
"Not very hard, I guess," Delmar said.
"You baby," she said fondly.
"I am not a baby," Delmar said, but her nuzzled his face against her ear.
"The road's up there," she said, pointing to the right.
"Don't care," Delmar mumbled. She disentangled herself from his arms, and slid off of the horse's shoulder.
"Help me with the wall," Ajalia said. "I can't lift out the stone."
Delmar sat on the horse and looked down at her.
"I don't want to leave you," he said.
"I'll see you in five minutes," she said.
"You'll disappear," he said. "And you'll get lost in the wall."
"I can't leave the horse," she pointed out.
"Then come through the gate," he said.
"I can't," she said.
"Can," he retorted.
"I am not ready to kill your father," she said. "Therefore, I can't."
He stared at her for a long moment, and then got off the horse. Ajalia tied the reins to a branch, and led Delmar into the thick cluster of the trees that lay just off of the white sand. Delmar followed her, his eyes cast down.
"You don't really mean that," he said finally.
"I'd rather you killed him," Ajalia said. "You killing him would make a greater effect."
"I'm not killing my father," Delmar said haughtily.
"Why?" she asked. "Because you're a good person?"
"Because he's my father," Delmar explained. "And," he added quickly, "I don't kill people."
"You do now," Ajalia pointed out. "You killed Lim."
"You killed Lim," Delmar said blankly.
"No," Ajalia said patiently, "you killed Lim. He attacked you, because he's crazy, and he doesn't understand Slavithe ways, and he was probably jealous of you and Yelin, and you defended yourself, and then you put his body into the poison tree to prove that you did nothing wrong."
"What are you doing?" Delmar asked.
"You're getting your story straight," Ajalia told him. "If you don't, you'll be dead."
"No one is going to kill me," Delmar said loudly. They had reached the verge of the hedge-like trees, where the white sand spread out from the roots of the sudden forest, but neither of them stepped out into the fine sand.
"You killed Lim," Ajalia repeated. "You killed him when he tried to shoot a barb at you. You checked later, and it was poisoned. Only cowards and tyrants use poison, so everyone will already be on your side at that point. Checking for poison will show that you have a brain."
"No one is going to ask me about Lim," Delmar insisted.
"I won't see you for a few days, then," Ajalia told him. "Everyone will ask you where you've been, and how you survived the attack of the jealous Eastern slave. Your father will probably come to see me, to accuse me of planting an assassin in his house. Deal with that."
"I can't deal with that," Delmar exploded. "This is insanity! None of this will happen!"
Ajalia stepped out of the trees, and went to the place where the rock could lift free from the wall.
"I'm not strong enough," she said. "Help me."
Delmar stomped into the sand after her.
"You are being super dramatic," he told her sternly. "You're probably overtired."
"Maybe," Ajalia admitted. "Humor me, please."
He regarded her suspiciously. "Fine," he said. "Fine, if anyone comes up to me, and asks me how I killed Lim, I'll tell them that Lim ran up to me and shouted a bunch of stuff. The only word I understood was Yelin, repeated over and over again. He tried to poison me, and I knifed him in the neck." A strange flush was creeping up Delmar's neck; a smile of pleasure was tugging at the corners of his lips. "I killed him, and then I put him into the poison tree," Delmar said.
"And you were never, ever having an affair with Yelin," Ajalia added. Delmar stared at her.
"What?" he asked, aghast.
"And you never, ever had sex, or kissed, or fondled, or held hands with Yelin," she said. "You didn't even notice her, because you have been so wrapped up with me."
Delmar's eyes widened. His lips dropped open. His throat went up and down.
"What?" he said at last.
"People like you," Ajalia said. "Use that." She pointed at the wall, where the seams of the hole lay concealed.
"I have nothing to say to you," Delmar said finally. He lifted aside the thick slab in the wall. A gaping black hole was revealed beneath. "You have a very dirty mind," he added primly.
"Are you going to lift me up?" Ajalia asked demurely. Delmar squinted at her.
"No," he said.
"Please?" Ajalia asked. She smiled at him. Delmar struggled to keep a grin from his face.
"Fine," he told her, "but I'm not happy about it." He put his hands around her waist, and lifted her into the black hole. A shiver of terror ran over Ajalia's shoulders; she felt again that something evil lurked within the hole. Delmar's face was at the level of her knees as she sat in the hole. He had let his hands linger on her waist.
"Goodbye," she said. "Do you know how to get on the horse?"
"I can get on the horse," Delmar said.
"You're going to lead the horse into the city, aren't you?" she asked. Delmar glared at her.
"Certainly not," he said.
"Goodbye," she said again, but she didn't move.
"We're never going to be like this again, are we?" Delmar asked. Ajalia knew what he meant.
"I don't know what you mean," she lied.
"Like this, just us, alone," Delmar said. "There will be other people now, won't there?"
"Yes," Ajalia admitted. She studied his face. His eyes were piercing through her, their blue depths containing something like sadness.
"I'll see you later," Delmar said.
"Yes," Ajalia agreed. He held her waist; his hand was warm on the place Lim's projectile had hit.
"I still love you, little bird," Delmar said.
"Oh, hush," Ajalia said, but she smiled.
"I will see you," Delmar said.
"You're going to live in my house, you big baby," Ajalia said. Delmar kissed her knee, and let go of her.
"Don't get lost," he said. "The passage runs into the mountains. If you miss the gap on the other side, you'll be going on for hours."
"All right," she said.
"I'm closing this end," Delmar warned. "You'll have to figure out the other side."
"If I get trapped," Ajalia said teasingly, "will you come and rescue me?" Delmar regarded her soberly.
"Of course," he said.
"I was kidding," she said.
"It's dark in there," he pointed out. He waited for her to scooch into the black space, and then he heaved the stone back over the hole. The light outside cut off with a snap; tiny seams of light appeared at the edges of the rock. Ajalia heard a muffled knock against the outside of the wall. She knocked on the wall, and waited. Silence met her ears. She stood up cautiously, reaching to the top of the space, and felt for the inner walls.
The blackness was complete and stifling; she could smell dirt, and dust, and what seemed like rotting insects. She shuffled forward, keeping her hand on the side of the wall. The sense of looming evil was strong within the passage; she felt as though she were walking through a hall of death. She held her breath, and kept her head low.
When she had walked for an hour, she stopped, and turned back. Retracing her steps, she kept her eyes fixed on the wall where the opening to the city should lay concealed. When she had come partway back towards the forest entrance, she began to go very slowly, moving her hands over the opposite wall. She went closer to the forest entrance, and tried again. On the third movement back towards the forest gap, she found the tiny crack of light; a gasp of relief pressed out of her. She knelt on the stone floor, and worked her fingers into the cracks around the stone. For a moment, she was afraid she would be trapped in this passage, unable to shift the stone, but with a great heave, she made the barest sliver of daylight appear. She heaved and levered at the stone until a gap of several inches was between the stone and the rest of the wall. She looked out, then got her legs out of the opening, and wiggled her torso through the gap. She dropped a couple of feet to the ground, and lay for a moment, gasping for breath, on the stone floor of the building she found herself in. She looked up behind her, and saw that the section of wall where the hole was concealed was inside a public bathhouse; she found a box in a room next door, and dragged it underneath the shifted stone. She stood on the box, and worked at the stone with all her weight until it lay again seamless in the wall.
Ajalia sat down on the box, and tried to catch her breath. She shook the cobwebs and dust out of her orange gown, and arranged her hair. She replaced the box, and crept cautiously into the main part of the bathhouse. The building was deserted. She went to the entrance hall, and waited for some time, watching the door. No one came in. She went to the window that lay beside the door, and peered out. The sun was glancing in at an angle; it was late afternoon. The streets outside were partially shadowed, and mostly empty. Ajalia waited until the road was clear, and then slipped out of the door. She walked briskly down the shadowed street, and found herself in a winding series of alleyways. After a little exploring, she found the darkened place with the long row of boards, the alley Leed had put her down in when he had run to fetch Delmar. She went to the boards and sat down on the length of canvas that overlay them. She looked at the gap between the buildings, where the main street appeared in a flood of afternoon sun. Slavithe people were passing up and down in droves; she wondered where they were all going.